Tronox (NYSE:TROX) Lowered to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Tronox (NYSE:TROX) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on TROX. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Tronox from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Tronox from $19.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $15.33.

Tronox Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of TROX stock traded down $0.34 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $18.84. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,566,765 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,099,046. Tronox has a 52 week low of $10.08 and a 52 week high of $19.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 2.84. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.20. The company has a market cap of $2.95 billion, a PE ratio of -8.45, a P/E/G ratio of 25.36 and a beta of 1.91.

Tronox (NYSE:TROX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.01 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $774.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $753.98 million. Tronox had a negative net margin of 11.93% and a negative return on equity of 2.70%. Tronox’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Tronox will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Tronox Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. Tronox’s payout ratio is -22.42%.

Institutional Trading of Tronox

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new stake in Tronox during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tronox during the third quarter worth about $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tronox during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of Tronox in the third quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, TFO Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Tronox by 260,833.3% during the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 7,828 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,000 after purchasing an additional 7,825 shares during the last quarter. 73.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Tronox

Tronox Holdings plc operates as a vertically integrated manufacturer of TiO2 pigment in North America, South and Central America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates titanium-bearing mineral sand mines; and engages in beneficiation and smelting operations. It offers TiO2 pigment; ultrafine specialty TiO2; zircon; feedstock; pig iron; monazite; titanium tetrachloride; and other products.